USC Halloween Prank

If you haven’t heard about this, you’re missing out. I saw the highlights on SportsCenter Tuesday, but haven’t got around to positing it….

During the middle of practice USC’s practice Monday (Halloween) Night, back up running back LenDale White began complaining to coaches about his lack of carries and that he was tired of sharing the load with Reggie Bush.

Then, with coaches screaming at him, White stormed off the practice field, hurling his gloves away and ignoring reporters who followed him out of practice, and argued with offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin (who had no idea about the joke) and said he was quitting. He got onto a golf cart and headed back to the team’s locker room.

Trojan coach Pete Carroll gathered his team and told it that it didn’t need distractions like White and would continue to win without him. He wasn’t finished with the end-of-practice-talk when one of the assistants pointed to the top of a nearby building.

As they looked up, all they could see was the equipment coordinator approaching White. Then, before their horrified eyes, Dominguez lunged out and tried to grab No. 21 before he hurled himself off the roof.

Only the real White was lying flat on the roof while the dummy dressed in his uniform plummeted from a four-story science building – Carroll’s Halloween prank for his team.

Carroll has thrived at USC with planning, preparation and putting his players in the right places to succeed. The only ones in on the prank were White, Bush, offensive line coach Pat Ruel (who first spotted White on the rooftop) and Dominguez (who actually tossed the dummy off the building). Bush passed on the chance because he didn’t want to go on the roof. Also, he thought it would be more believable if LenDale played the trick, as he is more of a reputation for surliness than Bush.

“Well done,” Carroll told White when he returned to the field. “We killed them.”

“We had to get my teammates to really believe in it,” said White, who had thoroughly convinced some teammates who were visibly shaken after Ruel played his role and pointed to the scene on the roof.

Not bad, not bad. There were some players that didn’t think it was funny. I can see where they’re coming from but still, I would of been freaked out.